Campaign of the Month:
June 2012

Crimson Skies

Shrines and Nexuses

As described in the Religion section, there are many sanctified sites across the land that serve as vital conduits between the mortal world and the outer planes, through which divine spiritual energy flows. These are called shrines, temples, and cathedrals. Similarly, there are many magical sites, which serve as a conduit through which arcane essence power passes into the world. Such a magical site is generally called a nexus. One may find many sundry structures or other phenomena at these nodes, from faerie circles and menhir’s, to wizard’s towers, dragon’s lairs, and even academies of magic. Druids typically gather at great monolithic circles found in extremely remote locations, which their ancient predecessors erected at nodes dedicated to material energies.

These locations of spiritual, essential and material magic are of vital importance to all spellcasters. They provide the conduit through which flow the magical energies that enable spellcasters to recharge their spells. Without access to the energy from such sites, a spell caster would soon be unable to cast any spells at all. Clearly, the creation, possession, and control of these sites is a primary concern for any would-be conqueror. Similarly, knowledge of and access to such sites in the remote wilderness is vital information to any adventurer.

Fortunately, there are enough of these nodal sites spread throughout the land, connected by ley lines, to afford most any caster access to the energy that fuels their magic. Although a caster does not require to be present within a node to refuel their daily allotment of spells, there are certain bonuses afforded them when they are recover their spells within one of these nodes. See recharge for specifics.

Nodes act in all ways like ley lines, in as much as detecting their presence, identifying their source, and tapping into them. Nodes are fixed, and have a finite area. It is common for nodes to be located at the junction of two or more ley lines, and thus may contain different types of energy.

Unlike ley lines, nodes only have three grades of strength: Lesser, Minor, and Major, which correspond roughly with three of the levels of ley line grades, Faint, Moderate and Major.

Below is a table combining information from the ley line pages, compiled to reflect the grade levels of the nodes.

Grade

Perception
Skill Check

Identify
Source

Level Boost
(Insight Bonus)

Structure
Complexity

Shrine
Type

Nexus
Type

Faint

DC: 14

DC: 16

+1

Simple

Shrine

Lesse Nexus

Moderate

DC: 10

DC: 25

+2

Complex

Temple

Minor Nexus

Major

DC: 6

DC: 34

+3

Very Complex

Cathedral

Major Nexus

Faerie Roads

Faerie Roads are supernatural teleportation effects which do not use transitive planes. One of these roads can turn anything which passes through into energy, channel it along ley lines, and reconstitute it elsewhere in the ley line system. Faerie roads occur only in material ley lines, yet are easier to access from nodes. Faerie roads are more common on powerful, narrow lines that cross long distances. It is possible to enter a faerie road at some point along the ley line, but being at a material energy node might allow even a non-spell user to slip into the stream of magic. In fact, one reason for so many legends of disappearances around faerie circles, are due to a hapless victim blundering into a Faerie Road. Of course, the passage may have been facilitated by an angry or prankish fey.